A screen shot of the spoof video posted by the Michigan Senate Democrats criticizing Gov. Rick Snyder for his right-to-work law and an MEDC advertisement touting right to work alongside the Pure Michigan logo.Senate Democrats video screen shot

LANSING, MI — It was only a matter of time before a satirical video popped up, criticizing the MEDC for placing an advertisement touting right to work alongside the Pure Michigan logo.

The video denounced Gov. Rick Snyder for signing controversial right-to-work legislation. The video was made in reaction to a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that used the Pure Michigan logo while promoting the new right-to-work law as a reason to do business in the state.

The ad has outraged some Pure Michigan fans and right-to-work opponents. Snyder on Monday said he would have done the ad differently and did not review the ad ahead of time. The quasi-governmental Michigan Economic Development Corp. paid for the $144,000 advertisement.

Sen. Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, has been a vocal opponent of the move and sent a link to the video in a press release.

“It was once said that Pure Michigan was about all of us, from main street to your street, to those places where streets don’t even exist, Pure Michigan was about our best, the best of who we are, the best way to welcome the world to Michigan’s doorstep,” the video’s narrator says. “Until one day, Pure Michigan was no longer about us, it was about one person, one agenda, and one more thing to divide us. And on that day, Michigan just seemed, well, a little less pure. The journey ended at Michigan.gov/gov.”

MEDC President and CEO Mike Finney on Friday defended his agency’s decision to run the ad, saying it has used the Pure Michigan brand to promote economic development for some time, and that right to work is just another business attraction tool.

Snyder said he wouldn’t have emphasized right to work in the same manner and would have preferred the ad promote a more broad selection of business attraction assets. Read the advertisement’s full text here.